She was an Iranian film star who didn't see her own movies, a celebrity who stayed home because she didn't like to be recognized. "People would sometimes think you were the character you played, and treated you like that," Vida Ghahremani said recently. "They felt they could approach you, and that bothered me."
This was the late 1950s and early 60s, a time when intersections of Western influences and Persian culture were rapidly accelerating. Now Ghahremani, a real-life star of nearly 20 Iranian movies, is playing a fictionalized version of herself in a new play written by daughter Torange Yeghiazarian. Both are now residents of the East Bay.
Yeghiazarian, founder of Golden Thread Productions, said that the central idea for the play came from a Middle Eastern tour that Duke Ellington and his orchestra undertook in 1963. It was arranged by the U.S. State Department, eager to present a positive image of race relations when worldwide headlines were focusing on the desegregation battles in the South.
Among those on the arduous 10-country tour was Billy Strayhorn, the composer and arranger who served as Ellington's right-hand man and who wrote such Ellington standards as "Take the 'A' Train" and "Lush Life." Strayhorn was also openly gay, but found protection in Ellington's shadow. "I was also inspired by Strayhorn's relationship with Lena Horne, who called him the true love of her life," Yeghiazarian said.
In the play, Yeghiazarian's mother, Vida, becomes Bella, a glamorous Iranian actress, while the Strayhorn character is renamed Ray Hamilton. During Ellington's tour, Bella and Ray decide to run off together, traveling from Tehran to the fabled Iranian city of Isfahan. "I thought it would be interesting to see how these two people from very different backgrounds could still find a bond," Yeghiazarian said. "They both had lives that were superseded by others" �" Ray by Ellington, and Bella by her husband �" "and they share this in an escape for independence."
Isfahan Blues will have its world premiere May 2 at Buriel Clay Theater, the first co-production between the Middle Eastern-themed Golden Thread that Yeghiazarian founded in 1996 and the African-American Shakespeare Company that traditionally presents interpretations of classic drama. L. Peter Callender, the latter's artistic director, is playing the character based on Strayhorn, and an original score has been written for the show by Marcus Shelby.
"This is a memory play," Yeghiazarian said, with the older Bella and the ghost of Ray looking back at their quixotic attempt to flee together from expected roles. While Callender will portray Ray throughout the play, Sofia Ahmad will play the Bella of 1963, and Ghahremani will play the Bella recalling events of decades before. "The entire play takes place over the course of 17 hours," the playwright said. The situation might suggest a bittersweet ending, but Yeghiazarian said, "I hope it is inspiring."
The stories that Yeghiazarian has heard her mother tell over the years provided background for the play, and her own memories as a child at her parents' music club are also woven into the story. A bisexual character named Farid is based on a musician who worked at the club, and he accompanies Bella and Ray, and brings a sexual tension to the road trip.
The music club in the play is named Cuccini, and it's the name of the actual club that Ghahremani and her jazz-loving husband ran in Tehran. The music and decor at Club Cuccini definitely tilted Westward, and the name of the house band, for example, was the Stray Cats.
After the Iranian revolution of 1979, both mother and grown children separately made the U.S. their homes. Ghahremani's own reluctance to support in any way the leaders and policies of Iran in the post-Shah era was finally softened by homesick yearnings. "I did go back to visit Iran in 2004 after 26 years away," she said. "I felt very sorry for the women. So many of their rights are gone." (Her own experiences as a popular working actress did begin on a sour note when she was expelled from high school because her first movie role included a screen kiss.)
There was also an unexpected and happy surprise, an ironic one for an actress who had so hated being recognized all those years ago. She was at a theater in Tehran during a film festival, and two young men thought she looked familiar. When she mentioned the name of a particular director she had worked with, they both called out her name in unison. "It was funny for me and also made me cry," she said. They made DVD copies of seven of her movies, six of which she had never seen, and sent them to her along with glamour shots from vintage magazines.
There were film and music artists who stayed in Iran after the revolution and who tried to stay employable by making peace with the new strictures. This brought some rebuke from those who left either in fear or disapproval of the new government. How does Ghahremani feel about those who stayed behind? "All I can say," she said, "is God bless them."
More information on the run of Isfahan Blues is available at www.african-americanshakes.org or goldenthread.org.